Design of 15 Gb/s inductorless limiting amplifier with RSSI and LOS indication in 65nm CMOS

A limiting amplifier IC implemented in 65nm CMOS technology and intended for high-speed op- tical fiber communications is described in this paper. The inductorless limiting amplifier incorporates 5-stage 8 dB gain limiting cells with active feedback and negative Miller capacitance, a high speed output buffer with novel third order active feedback, and a high speed full-wave rectifier. The re- ceiver signal strength indictor （RSSI） can detect input signal power with 33dB dynamic range, and the limiting amplifier features a programmable loss of signal （LOS） indication with external resistor. The sensitivity of the limiting amplifier is 5.5mV at BER = 10^ -12 and the layout area is only 0.53 × 0.72 mm^2 because of no passive inductor. The total gain is over 41dB, and bandwidth exceeds 12GHz with 56mW power dissipation.

Facial nerve monitoring in parotid gland surgery:Design and feasibility assessment of a potential standardized technique

Background:Even though the use of nerve monitoring during parotid gland surgery is not the gold standard to prevent damage to the nerve,it surely offers some advantages over the traditional approach.Different from thyroid surgery,where a series of steps in intraoperative nerve monitoring have been described to confirm not only the integrity but—most importantly—the function of the recurrent laryngeal nerve,in parotid gland surgery,a formal guideline to follow while dissecting the facial nerve has yet to be described.Methods:A five‐year retrospective study was done reviewing the intraoperative records of patients who underwent parotid gland surgery under neural monitoring.The operative findings regarding the neuromonitoring process,particularly in regard to the amplitude of two main branches,were revised.A literature search was done to search for guidelines to follow when a facial nerve loss of signal is encountered.Results:Fifty‐five patients were operated on using the Nim 3 Nerve Monitoring System(Medtronic);31 were female patients,and 47 patients had benign lesions.Minimum changes were observed in the amplitude records after a comparison was made between the first and the last stimulation.There were only three articles discussing the term loss of signal during parotid gland surgery.Conclusion:Today,no sufficient attention has been given to the facial nerve monitoring process during parotidectomy.This study proposes a formal guideline to follow during this procedure as well as an instruction to consider when a loss of signal is observed to develop a uniform technique of facial nerve stimulation.